Customer Reviews

The Last Castle [VHS]

5 star:		(38)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

The film stars Robert Redford as a 3-star general who has been stripped of his rank and sent to a military prison run by James Gandolfini of "The Sopranos" fame. From the beginning there is conflict between the two men as Redford views Gandolfini as a tin soldier who has never been in real battles. As the film goes on, we see Gandolfini as nothing short of a sadist who punishes the men severely for every infraction of his silly rules. The story moves fast and the audience identifies with the plight of the men who have lost their pride in being soldiers. Redford orchestrates psychological strategies to rattle Gandolfini as well as armed conflict. The plot moves so fast and is so involving that I got totally absorbed in the film, rooting for the prisoners as they fought for dignity under Gandolfini's heavy hand.

Redford is a good actor and played his part well. He has lines in his face, which make him look real. James Gandolfini is magnificent and shows the range of his acting skills because the role called for a complex and nuanced performance. As I was watching the film, I was so caught up in the story that there was no time to think about the holes in the plot. By the next morning though I felt it was all rather contrived and silly.

I was impressed by the clarity of the DVD picture and the extras at the end of the film, such as the director's voice-over as we watched scenes that had been cut. All this added to my viewing enjoyment. As for the film itself, it will appeal to those who, like me, enjoy war movies. Don't expect to cry and don't expect to laugh. There's high drama in the film, but it doesn't go to the heart. But I do find it enjoyable to just sit back, relax, and let the film take me where it wants.

Director Rod Lurie's follow-up of "The Contender" raises his patriotic tone higher than before, and gives an intriguging setting of the film, but as he did before, sacrifices its potentially complex nature of patriotism. Instead of making full use of the interesting situation, "The Last Castle" goes in a very familar territory where many previous prison dramas have treaded before. But ... here's an irony ... the film is very engaging and entertaining as the latter.

Robert Redford is General Irwin (and three-star general), who disobeyed a direct order from the President and was found guilty at court marshal. Irwin, now stripped of his honor, is sent to the prison where Col. Winter (James Gandolfini) maneges with strict rules. At first, Irwin was thinking of nothing but "doing time, and going home," dreaming of the day (ten years ahead) when he can play chess with his still unseen grandson. But the situation around him, which is so severe for some inmates of the prison, wakes up something in Irwin: his anger against injustice. With his leadership, the convicted men, once deprived of pride, now believe that he is the man to rely on, and start to follow him.

In 1980, Robert Redford was in a similar (but with a totally diffrent tone) film called "Brubaker." If you remember that, or have the fresh memory of "Shawshank" and many other dramas set in prison, it is not hard for you to guess the development of the story. I must say here that for all its predictable plot, "The Last Castle" never fails to grab your attention. After all, Redford is always good at playing this type of hero, and Gandolfini supplies us exactly the kind of man who should be despised and ridiculed. Delroy Lindo's cameo gives a fresh air at the right moment, and you also got an uncredited appearance of one famous actress R.W. (or R.W.P.) as Irwin's daughter.

However, some might find problems right with those things -- Redford did too many roles like this in the past back from the 1970s, and he can do it while sleeping. Gandolfini pumps up his acting, and probably that is suitable for this kind of person, but if you have seen "The Mexican" (and yes, "The Sopranos") you know he can do it better than that, and could have shown more complicated side of the character. Inexplicably, Col. Winter seems to have his say at some moment (when he talks about his predecessor), but he is not allowed to do that. That is manipulating, some might say, considering the difficult nature of his job at prison. I agree with them.

There are even swell action scenes; there is a character who you judge soon is going to get killed, and you judge it right. There are many elements we find in prison dramas, and if you complain them, you will dislike the film. Your complaint is justified; only, you just have to forget it, to enjoy the drama which is in itself very gripping. But talking about the "waving flag," I just don't think that the US military system needs drastic events of this magnitude.

See this one as a good textbook about the quality of leadership, and as an absorbing tale of men and their pride. As such "The Last Castle" should be seen.

"The Last Castle" is among one of the best prison dramas that I have ever seen since...ever! It is so thrilling, so entertaining that you would have to see it again and again! And Robert Redford's performance just couldn't be better! "The Last Castle" focuses on General Eugene Irwin (Redford) a three-star general who is being sent to a military prison for defying a presidential order, but did so heroically. There, he meets Colonel Winter (an excellent James Gandolfini), who has the utmost amount of respect for the general. Winter is a man who has never seen combat, and when Irwin sneeks a peek at Winter's battlefield memorabilia, that's when we know that they won't be seeing eye to eye for a long time. The other inmates, among them are Mark Ruffalo as the prison booky, Yates, decide to go to the general about the treatment of the prison. And that's when the real war begins! General Irwin rallied up the other prisoners into taking over the prison as a result of protesting the sadistic colonel/warden's abuse of his power. In a way, it's World War III...but inside of a prison! "The Last Castle" has it all, action, drama, great storytelling, and a top-notch cast that's hard to beat! This is a DVD must-own to your collection! Truly one of the best Robert Redford movies ever!

"The Last Castle" is a novel about the inherent value of human life. Even the worst of prisoners and other undesirables are still human beings and if we look deep enough, we can find nobility and value in them too. I enjoyed this film and its' message.

The story's plot revolves around a remarkable man, Lieutenant General Eugene Erwin played by Robert Redford, and his sentencing to a ten-year prison sentence at a military prison for a crime unmentioned until later in the film. As Erwin is brought to prison, we meet the leading antagonist, Colonel Winter, played by James Gandolfini, a quiet soft-spoken man and the prison warden whose personality seems to be much deeper than his civilized exterior. After Erwin and Winters meet some ten minutes or so into the movie, we can see that the rest of the film will be about a test of wills between the two.

The film's climax culminates in the prisoners staging an overthrow of Colonel Winter and his guards by the prisoners led by Erwin. The director really thought up some innovative ideas for how prisoners might deal with helicopters, riot cars with hydraulic hoses, and guard towers. Many of the other reviewers wrote that they thought the prisoners' solutions to the helicopters, riot cars with hydraulic hoses, and guard towers were a bit far fetched. I don't agree and found everything plausible if not very likely. The prisoners use food trays as shields like Roman Legionnaires in Tetsudo formation (a solid line of shields) to protect themselves from the water cannon on the riot car and some of the prisoners crawl under the building and cut off the water main feeding the water cannon. They then use the water cannon to shoot a grappling hook attached to a chain, which entangles the helicopter's landing skids. Even better, then a prisoner, who is also a helicopter pilot, shimmies up the chain and overpowers the helicopter pilot. See what I mean about plausible but farfetched?

Meanwhile the prisoners have built a trebuchet (a gravity catapult) and are using rubber medical hose to lob bags of flammables at the guard towers. I got a particular chuckle out of this one since I remember engineering students at university hooking gigantic piece of rubber medical hose between two antennas on our dorm's roof to hurl water balloons at an opposing dorm. I can definitely vouch that rubber medical hose works fine for lobbing things great distances.

However, the crown jewel of the film is Redford's portrayal of General Erwin. Redford gives Erwin a force of character and a determination that makes it hard not to like him. He's very believable as a general. The film also relates that Erwin is a former POW and Vietnam veteran. Redford's lines about the experience correspond with every novel I've read about the POW experience in Vietnam. Once again, Redfrod's performance rang true. A minor subtheme for the film is chess and all of Erwin's moves are related to a chess game including the eventual overthrow of the prison. One reviewer wrote that Erwin was just as much a manipulator as Gandolfini's Colonel Winters and to this point I disagree. Erwin portrays a general who leads men by example and respect. This is called leadership and has nothing to do with manipulation. A general leads men to accomplish a task that he or she may or may not agree with. A manipulator USES men to accomplish tasks for the manipulator's own ends. There is a strong difference between the two.

I highly recommend this excellent drama.

Review by: Maximillian Ben Hanan

We do not easily tire of fallen super-heroes rising again. Russell Crowe's Roman general/gladiator figure and Charlton Heston's Judah Ben-Hur come to mind. We love seeing them re-assemble their scattered powers and claw their way back to the top. In this film the wonderful Robert Redford is a dashed, but previously mighty, three-star general, Eugene Irwin. The character has admittedly made mistakes in the past, but his heroic sense of honor and high-minded character are readily discernible. I never cease to admire Redford's ability to portray the human male at its most heroic best. "Inspiring" is not too strong a descriptor.
The use of prison-as-castle metaphor offers interesting possibilities for Redford's character, the Chess-loving, master of military strategy.
His nemesis, Warden Colonel Winter, is played with just the right amount of creepy smarminess by James Gandolfini (think: "borderline personality"). The supporting cast does a creditable job as well.
The plot, while not air-tight, is fairly serviceable and there is just the right amount of action/adventure (these ARE military people, and this IS a prison).
Special mention certainly goes to the screenplay, which is very well crafted and quite intelligent.
A good measuring stick for me is the length of time this film "stayed with me" after the credits were complete. I highly recommend this movie.

This is a brilliant movie with great characters. Robert Redford returns to the big screen as decorated three-star General Irwin, who is court martialed for disregarding an executive command by the President. His legacy as a soldier precedes him and eventually gains him the respect of his fellow inmates. The Warden (James Gandolfini) of the prison is intimidated by Irwin's presence and reputation which ultimately propels them into the tug-of-war for control over the prisoners and eventually the prison. This movie displays a soldier's honor, pride and loyalty, because before anything else they are still soldiers.

On its surface, The Last Castle is an enjoyable action flick carrying some meaningful messages. But upon closer scrutiny, there's not much below that surface.

The story is definitely an entertaining one. Robert Redford plays a court martialed three-star general entering prison, where he comes into conflict with a manipulative warden played by James Gandolfini who enjoys making life as difficult as possible for his inmates.

It's easy for many to mistakenly label this flick as a masterpiece. It has all the right pieces, internal and external conflicts, symbolism, a great cast and wonderful cinematography. But it just doesn't use them as masterful as it could.

Two things really bugged me. One was the manipulative film score. Now I'm all for grand majestic film scores such as Star Wars, or Braveheart - when appropriate - but when they stop impressing a certain mood and cross the line to blatantly declare "hey, you have to feel really moved here! The music demands it!" it gets to be a distraction. This film doesn't call for a majestic score, it's a prison drama and deserves something more subtle. Let the acting speak for itself, both Robert Redford and James Gandolfini are great. They don't need manipulative music to express their emotions.

The second thing was the film went too far to explain its symbolism. The idea of the prison being a castle is great, and the film makes a number of analogies between prisoners and medieval soldiers, (which really work well since this is a military prison). But instead of letting the audience figure all the symbolism out themselves, everything is fully explained. No repeat viewings are necessary to catch all the ideas and metaphors used, it's like watching the movie with the director next to you explaining "yeah, here this scene represents... blah blah blah." Figuring it all out is half the fun of a good movie, and part of what makes repeat viewings entertaining.

The Last Castle also seems to take a lot of visual ideas from one of the the greatest prison dramas: The Shawshank Redemption. I'm not sure, but I think they may have even used the same old-style prison. So many of the shots, along with many story elements, are identical to shots in The Shawshank Redemption.

But despite these flaws, The Last Castle is still a very entertaining film. The acting is great, the drama is all there and the action sequence at the end is spectacular. It's just too bad this one didn't rise above the popcorn flick level, because it sure had the potential.

In the absence of a wonderful performance by James Gandolfini, this would be just one more of the formulaic, cookie-cutter Hollywood prison movies. The plot is more than familiar, if not outright predictable: "the guards are sadists and criminals; the prisoners are victims and the heroes; society can only be saved by the role reversal that their insurrection involves, you know the rest." The earliest version of this I can recall is Birdman of Alcatraz, but the genre probably goes back to Victor Hugo, if not further. Unfortunately, Redford isn't Burt Lancaster, and his character isn't Jean Valjean. Nonetheless, it's the average Redford performance: lots of closeups and little acting - not awful, but nothing worth comment. James Gandolfini, however, although a comparative newcomer to major Hollywood productions, shows just what fine acting can be and displays more dramatic range in his role than Redford has in his entire career. Sopranos afficianados won't recognize him if they hear the soundtrack only. The long and the short of this is that this movie would be a profoundly forgettable piece of agitprop absent Gandolfini's splendid performance. With that performance, Last Castle struggles but finally achieves a measure of acceptability -- but only just.

When watching this excellent film, one must remember that this is a military prison, so one wouldn't expect the usual let's break in the new kid's butt or stab someone in the showers. THE LAST CASTLE makes sure the viewer understands that even if these guys are criminals and incarcerated, they are still soldiers and deserve the dignity and respect any human being deserves. It is the commandant's downfall that his lack of respect for anyone other than himself ushers in a new regime.

Robert Redford is very good in the role of the General Irwin. At first, he seems reticent and willing to serve his ten year sentence, one that he realizes is justified. James Gandolfini brings a smarmy arrogance to his role as the commandant who smoozes all over Redford on his initial meeting, but then when Redford makes note of the fact that Gandolfini has never served time out on the battlefield, Gandolfini's jealousy prompts him to treat Redford just as he does everyone else! When several inmates inform Redford of some highly suspicious deaths, he decides to lead them in a takeover of the prison.

The supporting cast is brilliant: Mark Ruffalo, Delroy Lindo, Steve Burton, Paul Calderon, Samuel Ball, Jeremy Childs, Clifton Collins jr. and Brian Goodman among them.

Director Rod Lurie (The Contender) keeps things going and the climax battle is a doozy!

A wonderful film that is both inspirational and thought-provoking. I liked it very much!!!

This movie is creative, but at a less intuitive rate. There is much to be gathered here, despite the predictability on the surface. I think it speaks much to the next 20 years of the United States. Give it a viewing and then give it a couple days to grow on you.

The acting is very good, as is the cinematography. The editing is very good, as is the transfer to DVD.

Overall, one to put on your second-tier viewing list.